Berry, Hanks, McAvoy, McKellen and Portman Have Their Heads in the "Cloud Atlas"

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A fistful of talent has been invited on board writer-director Tom Tykwer's adaptation of David Mitchel's acclaimed novel, "Cloud Atlas," a time-skipping epic that spans thousands of years and features six main characters.

A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilisation -- the narrators of "Cloud Atlas" hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

The book has been considered by some to be unfilmable, what with the shift in chronology and focus, but Tykwer has shown an affinity and talent for paling with time in his best known film, "Run, Lola, Run," so he apparently feels up to the challenge.